Barth’s Doctrine of Analogy of Faith

Abstract

Karl Barth is the most genial prolific and influential Protestant theologian of our time. In the history of his thought there are two decisive turning points. The first is the abandonment of liberalism in favor of a dialectical method which draws upon the infinite qualitative difference between time and eternity;1 the second is the abandonment of the method of dialectic in favor of the method of analogy.2 The first conversion is documented by Romerbrief.3 In this revolutionary book Barth reasserts the transcendent and sovereign character of the God of the Bible. For a century the liberal school had emphasized the immanent character of God by relating religion to the other aspects of human life and thought, to reconcile religion with science, and to show the universal harmony between human mind and divine spirit. As a student of Harnack, Barth had also embraced and defended the principles of the liberal school for several years. But with the Romerbrief he gave the signal for revolt. With warlike temper he attacked the rationalism, humanism and liberalism that had invaded Protestant theology and brought to light again the unique and paradoxical character of Biblical faith. To give expression to the infinite qualitative difference between natural and revealed religion and between philosophy and Bible, Barth introduced the dialectical method.l But this method proved very soon to be unsatisfactory and incapable of expressing the infinite qualitative difference, because dialectic conceives the universe, before creation and after the end, pantheistically.